Mechanical response of metallic glasses: Insights from in-situ high energy X-ray diffraction

The term “metallic glass” usually refers to a metallic alloy rapidly quenched in order to “freeze” its structure from the liquid state. A metallic glass is a metastable alloy, which lacks the symmetry typical for crystalline materials and at room temperature shows an amorphous liquid-like structure. Bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) represent a class of amorphous alloys. The most notable property of BMGs is their ultrahigh (near theoretical) strength and hardness. Because the known BMGs usually miss tensile plasticity and thus exhibit catastrophic failure upon tension it is important to understand deformation mechanisms involved and thus improve their performance. This aricle analyzes the use of synchrotron radiation for evaluating the elastic-plastic response of such materials.